By Frank Mcgregor, Europe burea chief

 STOCKOLOM (Sunatimes)-From now on, it is going to be much harder for many Somalis to be allowed to remain in Sweden, despite coming from one of the world's most war-ravaged countries. The risk is also great that many families are going to be split.

The Migration Board on Thursday [11 March] is going to make a policy decision on how applications for [family reunifications] from Somalis here on asylum are to be handled. And it will be tough: the door is going to be shut for many of them. According to Legal Department Chief Mikael Ribbenvik, the decision is an inevitable result of two precedent-setting verdicts in the Migration Board Court in January.

"It is completely clear that, because of the impact of these verdicts, it's going to be much harder to obtain residency permission. There is no doubt about this," Ribbenvik told TT.

The reason is that in Somalia, where one of the world's worst civil wars has raged since 1991, there is no proper passport. For asylum seekers from there who succeed in entering Sweden, however, it has heretofore been enough that they be able to establish probable identity. But starting now, when the asylum seekers' near and dear have, for example, fled first to Kenya or Ethiopia, and then want to be reunited in Sweden, a valid passport is going to be a must.

According to him, before the new verdicts were pronounced, Swedish authorities accepted a lower identification requirement in order to still be able to help the families.

No one can yet say how many will be impacted [with the new rule], but it will likely affect a large number. Somalis are the largest group of asylum seekers in Sweden. Last year, 5,874 Somalis sought asylum here, and the number of "connection cases" - family reunifications - totalled 9,562, according to the Migration Board.

According to Ribbenvik, there exists a new risk that many families will be split up. At the same time, he emphasizes that when children are involved, their situation must continue to be taken into consideration to the extent possible, and not hinder family reunification

The Swedish position with respect to Somalis over the past six months has thereby been characterized by a door having been opened, while another one has now been closed. In October, a verdict from the Migration Court was announced which generally means that all Somali asylum seekers have the right to stay in Sweden, since civil war is raging in their country. Now the most recent court decisions appear to have had the direct opposite effect.

Copyright: Sunatimes

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